In today’s business world superior enemies often come from unexpected quarters and this particularly applies when insolvency laws have not been adequately addressed when structures have been established. For example in recent years there has been a concerted push by Government to broaden the claw back provisions upon bankruptcy. In this paper we closely examine how these new provisions operate, the planning issues that necessarily arise, opportunities for good structural defence and associated issues including:
- the extent of the Bankruptcy Act claw back provisions
- the operation of the Bankruptcy Legislation Amendment (Anti-avoidance) Act 2006
- implications of the recent High Court decision in Cummins case
- an analysis of how specific structures may be subject to challenge by bankruptcy trustees.